Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
I have a lovely pleasure of which I have made a habit: I love to wait to read the next Harry Potter book right before the movie comes out and not a bit before. So this year I started Order of the Phoenix two weeks before I planned to see the movie in theaters. As you all know, it is the longest book in the series and has amounts of detail (i.e., ones that don’t necessarily lead anywhere plot-wise, but make you really love the story more) that make it both darker than books 1-4 and more exciting. It fills in a lot of gaps, which I was really glad for.
But this is exactly why I thought the film version was just “Okay” rather than spectacular. Granted, I ran the risk of being a little disappointed since I finished the book literally 45 minutes before I saw the film, but I really did expect more from it. Some of my friends who saw the movie before I did told me they did a great job considering it is the longest book and the shortest film, but I personally feel they could have made the film significantly longer than they did, included much more detail from the book, and people would still see the film and love it. We’re Harry Potter fans, for crying out loud! If we had the patience to read the book, we can certainly watch a 2hr. 45min. or 3 hour movie and still wonder why it was so short.
I’m not giving this film too poor of a review because I did think it had some great parts (examples: seeing the actors actually looking so adult!, an excellent job showing us the Ministry of Magic in all its wonders, and casting an exceptional Luna Lovegood), but I have to say I think they could have added so much more. There were so many scenes, people, places that I pictured while reading the book that I was incredibly disappointed not to see in the film. I guess that’s what happens when they shrink an 800+ book down to 2 hours. Hopefully bringing back Steve Kloves, (screenwriter for all the other HP films) will indulge me a wee bit more as he’s done so well in the past.
Viewed: August 2, 2007
Rating: Three and 1/2 stars
I have to agree that the movie was a little disappointing after reading the book and I finished the book in September I think. I would have sat and watched a five hour movie for that book. I just hope they do better with the sixth movie than the fifth because if you dont catch the sixth one alot of things wont make sense. Plus the sixth book was my favorite!
I do want to say though that if you watch the movie a few more times it does get better.
Granted I’m not saying I dont like it, I just thought they could have put more detail in it like mentioned above, because I too imagined several scenes that could and should have been in the movie.